Fight the Good Fight

     Worthwhile things are rarely easy to obtain. This is doubly so when kids are involved. But, if you ask almost any parent, the outcome is worth the pain. It's a good fight to raise and train kids. That's one of the lessons I'm learning this summer. This camp has been hard work. And all I've had to do is teach. All the heavy lifting (literal and metaphorical) has been done. It's up to me to make the language make sense to these kids.

     So I skipped last night's post. But I have a good reason for it. I was tromping all over Kiev with a group of teenage girls trying to complete a photo scavenger hunt. I didn't get back until almost 10PM. The girls are from my group at camp. When I decide to have kids, remind me to not have quintuplets.
     OK, let me get back on track. This is a camp put on by Transform English Academy. They partner with local groups in other countries to provide English day-camps for kids. This particular camp has nearly seventy kids running around. Well, I can't say only kids. There are at least two people who are over 20 years old. But the range of ages is from 10 to around 22. In my group, I have a split of four boys and five girls. They are either 13 or 14 years old.
     The teachers are a group from the US. They are primarily from California. The leader is Dean. He came with his wife, and three other people. Dean is the one in the blue shirt in the photo above. There are also two Americans living in Kiev (myself and one teacher from KCA) who are helping out.
     I'm told that this camp is being held in the same place as it was last year. It's about a five minute walk from where I have my English lessons. Wednesday was a nightmare getting there though. There is a big construction job on Peremogy where the city is repairing the road. It took me about thirty minutes to travel from my bus stop to Nyvky metro. That should normally take only five or ten minutes.
     The basic schedule was posted in the first picture on the last post. We start the morning with English lessons for about two hours. Then we have a tea and cookies break for thirty minutes.  After that is another hour of English. The kids, this week, need to prepare a skit to perform on the last day of camp. They have an hour and a half to prepare before lunch time. During that time, the teachers have been rotating around to different rooms for conversation practice. We sit with the students and just talk. It's an opportunity for us to get to know them better while also giving them a chance to practice their English. From then on, the day gets easy. Lunch for an hour and then activities in the afternoon. On the first day, we played table games and did line dancing. Tuesday was crafts and the photo scavenger hunt. Today we did tie-dye t-shirts and a game called Bunco. I'm not sure about tomorrow but you'll hear about it.
     Alright, it's getting late and I still need to shower before bed time. Have a good week. I'll try to write more about camp tomorrow or Friday.